The career of Ricky Starks has been a very interesting one to follow up to this point. After circulating on the indies for years, Starks got his first big break as part of the NWA roster around the launch of NWA Powerrr. However it was his debut in AEW – where he faced Cody Rhodes in a match for the TNT Championship. Starks turned this appearance into a long term contract, and remains in AEW to this day. Whenever he shows up on TV however, he draws comparisons to The Rock – and Starks is not a fan of this.
Ricky Starks Is Not A Fan Of Being Compared To The Rock
While speaking on the PWI Podcast, Starks had a chance to vent his frustrations about being constantly compared to The Rock – simply due to the way he dresses.
“Well, the only thing that bothers me is when people try to say that I’m actually actively copying The Rock with the way I dress and all this other dumb sh*t. It does piss me off because I’ve never gone into wrestling trying to copy The Rock. I’ve never studied The Rock’s promos to do exactly how he does. Everything I do, it comes from my head. It comes from how I feel and how I want to look. So when I hear people say that and discredit my originality, it does bother me a bit.
I think the issue is that some people, even outside of wrestling fans, they’re so closed minded that they can’t understand there’s individuality in certain people, and because of the way that I dress, they compare it to how The Rock used to dress. The Rock isn’t the only guy that knows how to dress. You all are just so used to people in basketball shorts and their own merchandise shirts, that you can’t fathom somebody coming on screen and dressing in a turtleneck and nice slacks. It’s the most bizarre thing.”
Aside from some shared aesthetics and an insane amount of charisma, Starks & The Rock are wildly different. His in-ring and promo style draws little to no comparisons to The Rock, so this is only an issue before the bell has a chance to ring.
Starks Is Deep In A Feud With Swerve Strickland & Keith Lee
Right now on AEW programming, Ricky Starks is the current FTW Champion – but has a focus on the tag team division. Alongside Powerhouse Hobbs, Starks is currently ranked #2 in the tag team division – and could find themselves getting a shot at the AEW World Tag Team Championships soon.
However, they first need to finish their feud with Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland – which has been on-going since before Revolution 2022. Starks & Hobbs got a win in a recent tag team clash, but only due to Taz tripping Keith Lee up.
Do you think Ricky Starks has much in common with The Rock? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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